I became a saint in the game

Chapter 7 Where is my mission reward?
The rest of the journey was as boring as ever.

Apart from the occasional caravans driving horse-drawn carriages passing by, there were no other wild monsters that Chen Shicheng expected to encounter.

After asking the old man, he learned that the soldiers in the county would regularly clean up the area around the official road, so the closer to the county, the smaller the chance of encountering wild monsters.

But no one knew what happened recently. The officers and soldiers in the county seemed to have disappeared, which led to them being chased by the soulless bandits on their way back to the county from Lijia Village.

Chen Shicheng originally wanted to gather 100 experience points before reaching the county town to level up and see what it felt like.

But after the old man said this, he temporarily gave up the idea and started asking questions related to the content of the game.

As an NPC, the old man knew more about the background information of the game and was not very clear about the game mechanism on the player's side. However, from the limited information he had, he still learned a lot of useful things.

Three years ago, the stars were bright in the sky, the night was as white as day, and the number of mindless wild monsters that could appear out of thin air like soulless bandits began to increase gradually.

In the past, one had to go deep into the mountains to encounter them, but today, three years later, they can be seen everywhere even on the official roads. If it weren't for the soldiers cleaning them up regularly, ordinary people like the old man wouldn't even be able to leave the city.

At the same time, a group of magical humans who looked like wild monsters but had sanity and could be reborn after death suddenly appeared in the villages around the county town.

As soon as these people appeared, they rushed to help the villagers and asked around if there were any tasks.

There are also some people who seem to be a little out of their mind. As long as there is a crack to squeeze through or a bump to climb over, they will definitely go up and take a look. Even if they are stuck inside, they will shout excitedly, "It's so real."

And this is still the mildest case. Some people do more serious things, such as killing chickens and poisoning dogs of fellow villagers. If the village chief hadn't led people to protest, it is estimated that even the old cows in the village would have been lost.

Of course, these are just mild exaggerations.

The little girl couldn't understand the reason for the change in Chen Shicheng's strength, but the old man who had seen players become stronger quickly knew that Chen Shicheng was most likely the same guy as those people.

So when I say this, I still have some reservations.
How could Chen Shicheng not see that the old man was hiding some facts? As a modern person who had played games, he knew too well what kind of people these players, known as the Fourth Calamity, were.

But why do you feel embarrassed when someone poops in the street? !

Chen Shicheng had no choice but to change the topic and start asking where the players had gone. Then he got an answer that shocked him.

The players in Huangchi County and its surrounding areas disappeared little by little in three years!
According to the old man, he is the only player he has seen in the past six months!
what's the situation?
Is it that the map changes after reaching a higher level?
As for the idea that other players quit the game because they thought it was not fun, Chen Shicheng had never considered this situation at all.

Even a fool knows what a game with 100% realism and NPCs that are indistinguishable from real people means. It's possible for one or two of them to play, but it's impossible for no one to play at all.

So what exactly happened?
Chen Shicheng instinctively felt that the disappearance of all the players was not simply due to a map change, there must be some other reason.

However, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't figure out what other reasons would cause the players to disappear collectively.

Time passed slowly as he was deep in thought, and he only came to his senses when the old man spoke.

"Young man, Huangchi County is just ahead!" Looking at the tall city wall that was almost visible to the naked eye, the old man pulled the little girl together and saluted Chen Shicheng with their fists.

At the same time, the system prompts also sounded.

[Mission: Escort (Completed)] That’s it?

What about below?
Chen Shicheng looked at the system prompt with no follow-up and a question mark popped up in his head. I accepted the task and sent the people there, and now you just say "accomplished" and send me away?
perhaps
The person who distributes the rewards is this old man?

He looked up at the old man, his eyes scanning him up and down.

"Why, young man?"

"Dad!!!!"

Before the old man could finish his words, a cry of great grief was heard from inside the city gate.

Looking in the direction where the sound came from, Chen Shicheng couldn't help but exclaim in his heart, what a man!
The man seemed to be a hunter. Although he did not look very old, he was tall and straight, about 1.95 meters tall, ten centimeters taller than Chen Shicheng.

He was wearing a sleeveless dark cloth shirt, his arms were so muscular that they looked like they could run a horse. He had a longbow on his back, and around his waist were the fur of his prey and a bag of gleaming arrows.

"Uncle, grandpa and I are here!" The little girl was surprised and opened her arms to greet him, "Uncle, I missed you so much!"

Chen Shicheng thought that what followed would be a warm scene of relatives hugging each other, but he didn't expect that this man completely ignored the little girl who was running away, and passed by her and pounced on the old man.

The little girl froze in place like a wooden chicken, her lips pouted and tears fell, "Uncle, didn't you see me?"

The young hunter completely ignored the crying little girl, kept checking the old man's wounds, and began to mutter to himself.

"Dad, are you okay, Dad? What happened, Dad? I will help you get revenge right away, Dad. Dad, please tell me who hurt you like this."

Originally, the little girl made Chen Shicheng almost laugh out loud, but he managed to hold it back. However, when he looked at the hunter with a huge contrast between his inner and outer appearance, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Seeing that the laughter attracted the hunter's attention, he quickly held his breath and pretended nothing had happened.

"Who is this?" The hunter took a look at Chen Shicheng, whose face was extremely distorted, and turned to ask the old man in confusion.

"Oh, this is the young man who saved us, his name is..." The old man was halfway through his words when he suddenly remembered that the two parties seemed to have never exchanged names.

"My name is Chen Shicheng. It's just a small favor. Don't worry about it." Chen Shicheng said quickly.

"I am Li Hu. I have no way of repaying you for saving my father. I..."

"Stop!" Chen Shicheng interrupted the hunter who inherited his father's tradition of repaying gratitude, "You don't need to work like a cow or a horse, is there anything practical?"

Although it's a bit of fun to do it for free, the reward can't be offset.

Although I didn't encounter any major danger along the way, and the only four wild monsters I encountered were easily defeated by me, a mission is a mission, and if you do it, you must get something in return. This is the most normal universal value.

(End of this chapter)